A SOUTHAMPTON school has become the first in the city to bid to free itself of council control.

Freemantle Infant School is one of only a handful in the country to apply to become an academy since the coalition government changed the rules to encourage good schools to gain more independence.

Schools with academy status receive their funding straight from central government, getting roughly ten per cent more to spend.

They also have greater freedom over setting their own curriculum, teachers’ pay, and the length of the working day and term times.

As previously reported by the Daily Echo, 17 schools in Southampton and Hampshire expressed an interest in becoming academies when Tory Education Secretary Michael Gove announced the changes to the rules earlier this year.

But so far, Freemantle is the only one to formally lodge an application.

If the 236-pupil school, which is based on Church of England-owned land in Mansion Road and due to begin the process of expanding to become a primary school from next September, is successful in its bid for academy status, it will become autonomous from April.